Italian policies on marginal territories: An overview

Abstract

The topic of inner areas and attention to economically marginal areas manifest periodically. The paper traces the main public policies that deal with these areas since the second post-war period. The literature review intends to critically evaluate the results that these interventions have given to the territories. The study of the first results of the National Strategy for the Inner Areas deals with the theme of participated planning and the bottom-up experience in regional cohesion policies: the areas selected become an experimental laboratory and an incubator for solutions identified ad hoc. The paper, therefore, focuses on the effects of the Intervento Straordinario per il Mezzogiorno (Extraordinary experience for South Italy) and of the actions for the economically depressed territory of the Centre-North. The research identifies differences, overlaps and problems that led to the suppression of the two measures: for 40 years these interventions have attempted to reform the agricultural sector and try to favour the establishment and development of the industrial sector. The critical reading focuses therefore on the analysis of the specific legislation for mountain areas: in this case, the legislation from a first phase of a welfare nature changes towards a cultural policy of protection and enhancement of local particularities, losing its specificity in time.